Brechtian Dramatic Strategies in the plays "Cloud Nine" and "Top Girls" by Caryl Churchill. Estrangement in Betty in "Cloud Nine" and Marlene in "Top Girls"

Abstract

This article focuses on analysing the plays Cloud Nine (1979) and Top Girls (1982) and contrasts them with Bertolt Brecht’s estrangement theory.

One of the aims of this article is to study both plays and describe in detail the playwright’s use of estrangement devices in order to illustrate gender inequalities. This is why firstly the use of estrangement in feminist theatre and some of the motives for the conjunction between feminist theatre and estrangement will be reviewed superficially.

A second phase will set out the estrangement devices applied to two female characters in the plays. The characters are Betty in Cloud Nine and Marlene in Top Girls. Churchill uses role reversal in both women as an estrangement device. Later it will seek to elucidate the suitability of the use of Brechtian devices in the two plays by Caryl Churchill by comparing them and the Brechtian elements in the aforementioned female characters. Finally, the comparison will show the evolution in the use of devices and their adaptation and development in the different periods of the playwright, whereby Churchill’s plays align with the idea formulated by Bertolt Brecht that affirms that each audience requires its own theatrical form and that led him to elucidate his epic theatre in opposition to Aristotelian dramatic theatre.